Tag Archive: X Terminal

A potentially severe security flaw has been uncovered in Apple’s Safari Web browser, which may enable attackers to execute arbitrary Unix shell scripts on a user’s machine simply by following a link on a Web site.

The exploit involves the way Mac OS X determines which program it should launch when opening files of a particular type. By renaming a Unix shell script to an extension Safari considers “safe,” omitting the script’s so-called “shebang line” (a command which specifies how the script should be executed), and compressing the script with the Zip archiving utility, Safari can be convinced to download the script, decompress it, assume the script is “safe,” then pass it off to the Mac OS X Terminal application for execution. An attacker could easily use such a script to delete a user’s home directory, damage the computer’s configuration, or obtain personal data.  Read more...